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State Route 522 shops must vacate by end of year

For his part, Archie Levashov seems eager to transplant his International Deli from the nearly vacant Bothell Landing shopping strip to a more northern spot near Thrasher’s Corner and the Bothell Fred Meyer store.

Levashov will be moving to 2020 Maltby Road to be exact.

“I’m happy about it,” he said. “It is a much better spot, a lot more traffic.”

Levashov said he will stay put in the spot where he landed five years ago after moving from Bellevue, but plans to be open in his newest location on Jan. 15.

According to Bothell Economic Development Director Terrie Battuello, Levashov is one of 27 Bothell businesses that have been asked to get out the way of the well-advertised plans to realign the intersection of Main Street and the city’s two state routes.

Sitting along the south side of State Route 522 near Main, those businesses are essentially in the path of the realignment and need to be vacated by the end of the year.

Battuello said the affected area runs from the gravel lot near the Park at Bothell Landing to the already vacated, former Bothell Ski and Bike shop. That store moved down the road to Kenmore a few months ago and owners have indicated they believe they have landed on their feet. Still, predictably, not all the affected business owners are happy about being forced to move.

“It’s not a good thing for us at all,” said Bill McVay of McVay’s Mobile Welding.

McVay said he spent two years looking for a new location before settling on a spot in Marysville as is announced on a large sign on the front of his shop’s current building.

McVay said the new spot won’t afford him the exposure of the Bothell location, not to mention it means he, his employees and current customers will have a much longer drive to the shop.

While there are several restaurants still in the path of the reconstruction, McVay’s is probably one of the bigger industrial operations remaining on that bit of SR 522. Just a few blocks away, Hertz Equipment Rental closed its doors Aug. 27. A sign on the former Hertz building lists other locations, but mentions nothing about a new Bothell outlet.

Of the several restaurants still in business, the two largest are outlets of fast-food chains Ivar’s and McDonald’s.

Questions about the Ivar’s location were directed to a corporate spokesperson who did not return a phone call. However, a sign in the window of the restaurant states the store will close Dec. 13 and that no new Bothell location has been found.

As for McDonald’s, inquires were directed to the Bothell franchise holder, who could not be reached for comment over the recent holiday weekend.

At Tandori Fire, Harpal Kavr is planning to move the buffet she started six years ago to Redmond. The restaurant’s last day of operations in Bothell was Nov. 28. Kavr said she originally intended to stay in town through December, but some practicalities of the move forced her to change her plans. Prior to closing her doors in Bothell, Kavr said customer reaction to the upcoming move was mixed.

“Some will follow us to Redmond,” she said. “Some.”

Kavr noted she had been collecting e-mails from regulars, hoping to keep them informed regarding the future of the business. Kavr didn’t say when the restaurant would reopen in its new location.

According to Battuello, Bothell officials have been working with the various businesses for about two years, as was indicated by McVay.

Business owners were eligible for help with relocation costs as long as they were operating before the city announced its realignment plans.

The deadline for businesses to vacate the affected area is Dec. 31 and Battuello said there are no hold-outs at this point. She added the city only recently let bids for demolition of the various businesses, demolition which should start early next year.

The realignment will affect state routes 522 and 527, along with Main.

In the past, officials have described the new, planned-for intersection as T-shaped and allowing safer and smoother traffic flow through the city’s downtown, which Bothell planners hope will be expanding from Main and moving up a revamped SR 527.

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